Unforgettable Memories | Xiao x Reader

Chapter Two

"There is nothing crueler
than letting a dream end midway."

~~~~~~

"Windblade!" Aether yelled as the attacked a lawchurl in front of him with his anemo power.

"Be careful Aether," Paimon shouted as she flitted around in hopes of cheering on the boy as well as avoiding all of the attacks. "You can do it Aether."

The lawchurl roared and ran towards the exhausted blonde traveler. Without any time to dodge, the boy got thrown backwards and ended up pretty badly injured as he rolled on the ground a few times.

"Aether!" Paimon shouted as she flew towards him.

Aether touched his side after feeling a stab of pain, "Ouch, this really hurts."

Knowing that he wouldn't survive long with the injury that he had sustained, he collected all of the anemo energy that he had left and summoned a tall tornado that started moving towards the lawchurl who was feeling the knockback of its powerful attack. The lawchurl was sucked into the powerful wind tornado and finally disappeared leaving only its horn as a trace of its existence.

"Ouch," Aether fell to the ground as all his adrenaline disappeared. "This sucks."

He laid on the ground looking at the sky as Paimon nervously flitted around not knowing what to do. Aether was without a doubt exhausted. He had been fighting Abyss mages, hilichurls, Fatui's and slimes as he was headed towards Liyue Harbor. And then, after his was all tired out, he was suddenly ambushed by a large lawchurl. That was the worst luck that he could have ever gotten.

Now, all that he wanted to do is lay down on the ground and rest. He wanted to close his eyes and fall asleep and dream of his beloved sister.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a shockingly beautiful girl said as she leaned in front of Aether's face. "Go to sleep I mean. I wouldn't go to sleep in that condition if I were you. If you were to sleep now, who knows when you might wake up."

"W-who are you?" Aether struggled to say as he reached for his sword.

"Y/n," you smiled. "Don't worry. I'm not an enemy."

You started skillfully cleaning Aether's wound before rubbing an ointment on it. Finally after a while to messaging the injury to relax the pain, you wrapped it in bandages and healed it up with your own anemo vision.

"Why did you not just heal him up with your vision if you could have done that from the beginning," the curious little pixie Paimon flew up to you.

"Although I do have a vision that allows me to heal people, there are limits. I can heal any injury however, the scar would still be there. By putting an ointment and caring for the wound first, I can reduce the chances of a scar being left on the body," you had explained as you started lifting the boys head on your legs. "Feel free to sleep now. I'll wake you up after a while."

"T-thank you," Aether mumbled before closing his eyes and drifting off into the world of dreams.

"Oh I forgot!" The flying pixie had exclaimed. "I'm Paimon and thats my companion Aether."

"I know," you laughed as you looked at the face of a shocked Paimon. "Katheryn had asked me to go looking around for you. She was worried that you might have been injured especially with the large amount of monsters that had been appearing lately."

"Oh really," Paimon wondered. "Well then, Paimon guesses we owe you!"

"Don't worry about it."

The two of you chatted as Aether slept peacefully on your legs. Between food and adventuring, you and Paimon had grown closer together. As a fellow foodie, both you and Paimon mainly talked about the various foods that you had tried.

"Oh I want to try that!" Paimon cried out as she imagined how the food that you had described would taste. "It sounds so yummy."

"I'll make for you sometime," you clapped your hands together with a smile on your face.

"I-" Aether muttered as he was still groggy after being accidently woken up. "What happened?"

"Y/n saved you," Paimon yelled at the poor boy. "You really should be thankful."

You gave an awkward laugh of embarrassment, "I only tended to your wounds. Nothing more, nothing less. So don't worry about it."

"Thank you," Aether immediately stood up as he realized that he had been laying on your legs. "I'm so sorry for all the trouble!"

"Its fine," you smiled as you tried to stand up. However, to no avail, your legs couldn't seem to work.

"Hey y/n, are you okay?" Paimon asked as she flew to your side.

"Oh I'm fine," you muttered. "Seems like legs few asleep after being used as a pillow."

"Oh no!" Aether worried. "It's all my fault. I'm so sorry! How long was I out for?"

"Around 6 hours," Paimon nodded.

"Well you should get going," you said. "I'll wait for a while for my legs to adjust and head on my way."

"Where will you be going?" Aether asked as he looked down at you.

"Liyue Harbor," you replied, softly nudging your legs to get them to work.

Aether grinned, "Well I'm going there too!"

The blonde boy carried you in a princess hold to your shock and started walking in the direction of Liyue Harbor.

"What are you doing?" You cried as you wiggled around.

"Carrying you. Its the least I could do for you helping me back there."

After realizing the situation, you relented and laid on the boys shoulders, "I'm not too heavy for you am I?"

"Dont worry," he grinned. "After you healed me up, I'm back to full strength. And anyways, your not really that heavy so don't worry about it."

You blushed as you avoided eye contact with the boy that was carrying you. You had never been in this situation before and because of that, you didn't know how to react. The traveler continued to walk while you felt you could overheat from the embarrassment. All you hoped was that your legs would work already so that you wouldn't have to be much of a burden anymore.

As Aether continued to walk and carry you, the two of you, along with Paimon had noticed a black and green haired boy with a jade colored spear sitting on a rock in front of around 20 dead hilichurls.

"Xiao," Aether called out as he ran while carrying you to say his greeting to the boy that he seemed to be familiar with.

The boy named Xiao looked at the two of you with annoyed eyes before it suddenly changed to shock and disbelief.  He had slowly backed away as if he had seen a ghost or something unnatural.

Paimon, being the curious person she was brought light to his react, "Are you alright Xiao?"

Xiao continued to back away as Aether and Paimon tried to get closer to the disbelief stricken boy.

"Y-y/n," Xiao had stuttered to everyone's surprise. "H-how?"